Inflexible 12 Hour Work Day

[kaydeebakes]

Hey Whole30 Fam! I have a problem. This week and next week are SUPER busy for me and I have no idea how to meal plan and eat around my schedule. Unfortunately, my schedule these two weeks are INFLEXIBLE. Literally I cannot change any of the timings, so that is not a solution.

Work starts at either 0600 or 0800. I will work without being able to snack until lunch. (There are 5-10 min bathroom breaks randomly but not enough time to eat and use the restroom). Lunch will be scheduled anywhere from 1030-2pm and most of the time, it's a working lunch aka I have like 20 mins to eat what I can. Then I'm working until 6pm with the same no-snacking rule.

I didn't realize my schedule restrictions until Monday, where I angrily ate a Lara Bar on the way to the restroom because lunch was at 1030 am and it was 4pm and I was hitting KATT states despite not being on Day 4. Also because lunch was so early and short, I wasn't hungry at all then, but rage levels by the afternoon.

Any recommendations on what I could make to eat quickly, or what snacks to bring to tide me over? I should be able to hide snacks on my person so I can eat them enroute to the bathroom (wow that sentence sounds so sad).

And don't worry- my normal schedule isn't this bad! It's just a crazy work situation right now.

[GoJo09]

Even 20 mins is going to be a case of stuffing as much in your mouth as possible! Definitely no foods that need to be reheated! I'm quite partial to cold roast vegetables, cold chicken or meat, etc, so I'd happily have those for lunches - you want dense foods with lots of fat, not things like salad that you have to eat a tonne of.

For that long stretch between meals, normally it'd be a hard boiled egg or a cold sausage, but you don't really want to be hiding that in your pocket all afternoon . Is this an instance where a meat and nut type bar might be appropriate? Obviously shovelling food in your mouth on the way to the toilet isn't ideal, but neither is the whole situation!

[pags98]

I'd recommend canned tuna (it actually is pretty good with just mustard which doesn't require refrigeration).  Also - if you have a food dehydrator I'd dehydrate the heck out of stuff.  We have one and it's been super helpful for staying compliant even at amusement parks or days on the lake.  You can make your own beef jerky (or any other type for that matter) and it's amazing what veggies can be like dehydrated.  Two of our faves are eggplant and zucchini.